>>536437237
It is. Not just because they frontload the nodes.
It's really focused on expanding Clarina's world. They first used the prologue to send the Adjutant there, then they used a chapter to estabilish the ambience and life in the manor with the party between Myra's circle to Clarina's introduction. Instead of going straight to Clarina's surgery, they used another section detailing Clarina getting to know the Adjutant, and then when we got to Yggdrasil it used another with Adjutant showing her around, taking her to the Amusement Park and so on. And then midway it takes more exposition on Clarina dealing with her powers and the issues with the chapter.
It feels like they took criticism with how fast Nerida fell for the Adjutant (specially since in her patch Nita had a lot of adventures with him to unlock her new suit) and they decided to slow down on the greater plot this time to properly develop Clarina and Adjutant's importance to her.
I actually agree with the choices here. It's best to either develop someone like this in her introduction chapter or do it like Vidya and introduce her a few patches ahead and develop her bit by bit over the course of them.
